Disposal of municipal refuse or garbage is an increasingly difficult problem for many municipalities. Municipal refuse is commonly disposed of in landfill sites, and such landfills require purchase of expensive land and are expensive to operate. Additionally, land used for landfills is unavailable for building or agriculture for an extended period of time during and after its use as a landfill.
Because of long felt problems associated with disposal of municipal refuse, there have been numerous efforts to develop means for composting municipal refuse to permit reuse of the soft organic components of the refuse as a fertilizer or soil additive. Examples of these prior art efforts are illustrated in the Eweson U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,447, issued Jun. 23, 1964; the Eweson U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,369, issued Feb. 15, 1966; the Eweson U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,759, issued Apr. 12, 1966; and the Eweson U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,799, issued Jan. 6, 1976.
Those apparatus include a rotating drum adapted to receive the municipal refuse and to promote biological decomposition of the refuse as it gradually moves from an inlet end of the drum, through a plurality of separate compartments, to an outlet end of the drum.
One of the disadvantages of the apparatus illustrated in the Eweson patents is that material such as fabric, plastic bags, cables and rope form obstructions in the apparatus preventing movement of the refuse from one compartment to the next and thereby prevent or restrict proper operation of the rotating drum.
Other prior art apparatus intended for use in composting refuse material or for use in converting garbage and municipal refuse to a useful product are illustrated in the Vaseen U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,094, issued Sep. 16, 1980; the Jung et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,389, issued Mar. 10, 1981; the Fisk U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,394, issued Oct. 11, 1977; the Jetzer U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,499, issued Nov. 2, 1976; the Pierson U.S. Pat. No. 2,823,106, issued Feb. 11, 1958; and the Brooks U.S. Pat. No. 2,864,672, issued Dec. 16, 1958. Attention is also directed to the Lutz et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,489, issued Jun. 9, 1981; the Schlichting U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,546, issued Nov. 24, 1981; the Fagerhaug U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,189, issued Jun. 7, 1977: the Daigoro Shibayama U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,074, issued Jul. 11, 1972; the Larson U.S. Pat. No. 3,178,267, issued Apr. 13, 1965 the Gay U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,943, issued Feb. 9, 1971: the Carlsson U.S. Pat. No. 2,954,285, issued Sep. 27, 1960 and the Petersen U.S. Pat. No. 2,241,734, issued May 13, 1941. Attention is further directed to the publication titled "Revising an English Composting Plant" by Edward G. Hughes and describing a composting plant in Leicester, England.